1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device with a shifting mechanism, particularly to a device with an elastic shifting mechanism.
2. Description of the Related Art
The devices with an elastic shifting mechanism include: the digital camera and the slide-style mobile phone. As to the digital camera, the lens protection cover thereof has the lens-protection and dust-proof functions; when the digital camera is not being used, the lens protection cover should be moved to the position where the lens can be covered, and when the user intends to take pictures, the lens protection cover is moved to uncover the lens. Therefore, for a digital camera, the lens protection cover is the portion most likely to use the shifting mechanism. The conventional shifting mechanism of a lens protection lens is usually a slide-way mechanism. Refer to FIG. 1 for a U.S. Pat. No. 5,819,127, which discloses a camera with a slide-way mechanism. As shown in FIG. 1, the camera 2 has two slide ways 4 respectively disposed in the upper side and the lower side thereof, and a slide cover 6 functioning as the lens protection cover is slidably installed to the slide ways 4. However, in such a design, the user is inconvenienced by having to push the slide cover 6 back to its original position manually, which also degrades the performance of the camera. To solve the abovementioned problem, there are the digital cameras with an electrically driven slide cover, wherein a motor is used to automatically restore the slide cover to its original position. However, in such a digital camera, the motor will consume considerable power, and the standby time of the digital camera is thus shortened. Besides, the battery holder of a digital camera is commonly installed fixedly inside the digital camera. When the batteries are to be replaced, the camera has to be flipped over so that the batteries can slide out of the battery holder. However, such an operation may risk the slip and fall of the digital camera.
In addition to the digital camera, the slide-style mobile phone also has a shifting mechanism. The conventional slide-style mobile phone has slide-way and snap-fit structures. When the user intends to use the slide-style mobile phone, he pushes the slide key cover to disengage from a first snap-fit structure between the slide key cover and the phone body, and the slide key cover slides along the slide way until the slide key cover snap-fits the phone body again at a second snap-fit structure. When the phone call is over, the user disengages the second snap-fit structure and pushes the slide key cover to slide along the slide way back to its original position. However, such a design is inconvenient for the user. Therefore, there is a conventional slide-style mobile phone with a spring existing, wherein with only a slight push or pull, the spring will push the slide key cover back to it original position automatically. Refer to FIG. 2 for a Taiwan patent No. 252209, which discloses a mobile phone with a slide-cover structure. As shown in FIG. 2, the slide-cover structure comprises: a base plate 8, an upper cover 10, and a spring 12. The base plate 8 has two slide ways 16 disposed at both side thereof, and the slide rails 14 can be embedded inside the slide ways 14. One end of the spring 12 is installed to a lateral side of the base plate 8, and the other end of the spring 12 is installed to the corresponding side of the upper cover 10. The base plate 8 and the upper cover 10 are respectively fixed to an upper body 18 and a lower body 20 of the mobile phone. Thus, the upper body 18 and the lower body 20 can slide relatively to each other with the spring 12 automatically restoring them to the original position. However, after the spring 12 has been compressed and released repetitively for a period of time, the spring 12 will be distorted or fractured because of stress concentration; thus, the slide-cover structure of the mobile phone can no more operate.
Accordingly, the present invention proposes a device with an elastic shifting mechanism to overcome the abovementioned problems.